Bag-Cartel Firms May Get Option to Sue Over Ruling Delays

May 30 (Bloomberg) -- Kendrion NV, Gascogne, and its
Gascogne Sack unit should be able to seek damages over delays in
rulings on their antitrust fines appeals dating back to 2006, an
adviser to the European Union’s top court said.

Gascogne Sack, a German arm of Gascogne, should also have
its fine cut to 2.1 million euros ($2.7 million) from 3.3
million euros for its role in an industrial bag cartel, Eleanor
Sharpston, an advocate general at the EU Court of Justice said
in a non-binding opinion today. The Luxembourg-based EU court
follows such advice in a majority of cases.

The European Commission in November 2005 fined 16 companies
290.7 million euros for colluding on prices of plastic bags used
for industrial products. British Polythene Industries Plc
escaped a fine because it was the first to provide the
commission with “decisive evidence” about the cartel, the EU
said at the time.

Kendrion and its former subsidiary Fardem Packaging BV in
2011 lost appeals at the EU General Court, the bloc’s second-highest tribunal, against the fines levied for colluding on
prices with competitors. The appeals were filed in 2006. The
commission, the 27-nation EU’s antitrust regulator, had fined
Zeist, Netherlands-based Kendrion and Fardem a combined 34
million euros.